Tips for your Library Research Assginment

This assignment purpose is to help you get acquainted with some of the library resources that you should be using to complete other assignments in this class. On this page, you will find a detailed explanation of which sources you could use to answer each question, as well as example searches and answers.

NOTE: For this assignment you must prepare proper citations. MLA has updated to the 8th edition. Please be cautious of using the citations suggested by the databases. I have found several mistakes in citations provided by various databases. Any questions on how to build citations for this assignment, please speak to an HCC librarian or a writing tutor at the Academic Success Center. Please see the MLA Citation Tools page on this LibGuide for more information.

Tips for Completing the Library Research Assignment

Tips for Completing Your Library Research Assignment:

Books (printed or eBooks): Use the HCC Libraries Online Catalog, see the Plant City Library Search box below. See the Online Catalog LibGuide for instructions on how to use the HCC Libraries Online Catalog.

Library Databases: For answers that must be found in a library database, good databases to use are Academic Search Complete, Biography in Context, Oxford English Dictionary.

Plant City Library Search

Questions 1 & 2

1. Have you had any formal library instruction, prior to this course? If so, when did you have this instruction?

Answer should be from your experience.

2. Locate and cite one single-author book on the subject of....

Use the HCC library catalog to answer this question and to search for your subject term. Open the Advanced Search page.

Example: To locate a book about the first ladies, type in the search words "first ladies" in the keyword box. Change the search parameters in the Keyword Search area: Material Type to Books; Withinto the library that you are using for this assignment. If you are in Plant City, change this parameter from HCC to Plant City. This will eliminate every other resource type and just provide you with a list of books found in the library.

To cite a book source with one author, use the following MLA 8th Edition Format:

Author.Title.Publisher, Year of Publication.

Caroli, Betty Boyd.First Ladies.Oxford,2010.

Question 3

3. Accessing the Library Databases, use the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to locate a definition for...; cut and paste one entry, and provide a citation.

The OED is available from the library as a database. You can access OED by clicking on the link below (it may prompt you to log in with your student ID number and pin [last four digits of your student ID number]). Once you have opened OED, type your word in the search box and click Go. Your results list should appear. Click on "Full Entry" to look at the complete entry for your word.

Searchable online version of the Oxford English Dictionary. Includes the complete text of the Oxford English Dictionary's twenty-volume Second Edition and three-volume Additions Series.

Question 4

4. Use the Biography In Context Library Database to locate a biography on...

The Biography In Context is another database that the library subscribes to. See the link below for access.

Open Biography in Context (it may prompt you to log in with your student ID number and pin [last four digits of your student ID number]), type the name of the person you are researching in the search box. Your results list should appear. *If there are multiple people with the same name, look at the occupation and/or birth and death dates to pick the right one.

Click on the person's name to see all of the biographical articles about them. Click on any of the article titles to look at the full title.

Question 5

5. Using the HCC library databases, locate a critical article addressing the literary works of...and provide a citation.

From the HCC Library's Online Catalog page, open Databases by Subject. You can access all of the electronic resources available at the library organized by major topic area. Select/click on "Literature" to see all of the databases that have literary specific information. Gale Literary Sources and Literary Reference Center are two good ones to start with.

*To look up your article, go to your selected databases, type in the author's name in the search box and click on search. On the results screen, click on tab labeled "Literature Criticism" to locate critical articles.

Gale Literary Sources brings together all of Gale's literary databases into one seamlessly cross-searchable research and study environment. Whether you're researching authors and their works, literary movements or genres, or trying to find book reviews of bestsellers, you can search across all of your library's Gale literary databases to find full text of literary works, journal articles, literature criticism and analysis, reviews, author biographies, and a rich collection of expertly written work overviews.

Combines information from over 1,000 books and monographs, major literary encyclopedias and reference works, hundreds of literary journals, and unique sources not available anywhere else. LRC contains detailed information on the most studied authors and their works.

Question 6

In general, articles are viewed as having more . Articles from the popular press are viewed as having . This is why faculty often request students find "scholarly or academic journal", not "popular magazine" articles for their research sources.

8. Using the online library databases, locate a critical article...

Question 9

9. Search the Internet to locate the American Memory project at the Library of Congress. Cite any film or collection from the site.

Use your preferred search engine, such as Google, to locate this answer.

Question 10

10.Locate and list five (5) bibliographic entries for scholarly sources that could be used to support a CRITICAL ANALYSIS or COMPARISON/CONTRAST essay addressing the work/works of one of the following literary figures:...be sure to use MLA 8th edition format for your bibliographic entries.

You can use books, database articles or a combination of both for this assignment. See Questions 2 and 5 for information on how to access the Library Catalog and Library Databases.

Questions 11 - 13

11.Locate and cite a periodical article from a scholarly source that critically analyzes any work by ...

Review the suggestion for question #5.

12. Provide a citation for a book with more than one author.

Review the suggestion for question #2.

13. Provide a citation for an anthology of American Literature with an editor.

Review the suggestion for question #2.

Question 14

14.Using either an online or hardcopy source, locate and excerpt five lines from ... and provide a citation.

Review the suggestion for question #2 to locate a hardcopy or eBook version of the text

OR

Review the suggestion for question #5 to locate an online version of the poem in a database.